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I have a little problem. I'm addicted to cookbooks, food writing, recipe collecting, and cooking. I have a lot of recipes waiting for me to try them, and ideas from articles, tv, and restaurants often lead to new dishes. I started losing track of what I've done. So now I'm taking photos and writing about what I've prepared—unless it's terrible in which case I forget it ever happened.

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Friday, January 22, 2010

A couple of weeks ago, we had some of the coldest weather this part of Texas has experienced in many years. We get a little uneasy around here with near-freezing temperatures, and when it dipped into the 20s (F) we were confused and concerned. So, what was I doing to prepare for this weekend of serious winter weather we were about to have? I was making ice cream. The ice cream was going to be served on warm brownies, but still, it was 20 degrees in Austin and I pulled out the ice cream maker. Maybe I should start by telling you about the brownies because that might make more sense. I wanted to mix up a southwest, chile powder-infused kind of brownie, and I found the perfect recipe in Nuevo Tex-Mex. The recipe was created by Rebecca Rather, and it includes ancho chile powder with semisweet chocolate, chocolate chips, and pine nuts. I thought big squares of those brownies warm from the oven would be great topped with a generous scoop of cinnamon ice cream. The cinnamon ice cream is from The Perfect Scoop.

The brownie recipe makes a large batch, so I cut the quantities in half and baked it in an eight inch square pan rather than a nine by thirteen inch pan. Still, the halved quantities included a half pound of semisweet chocolate, half a pound of butter, four eggs, and a cup and a half of sugar along with flour, ancho chile powder, chocolate chips, and pine nuts. These were kind of serious brownies. The batter was very easy to stir together without a mixer, and they went into 325 F oven for about 35-40 minutes. The recipe suggests a baking time of 20-25 minutes, but my brownies were nowhere near done at that point. The cinnamon ice cream was started by steeping broken cinnamon sticks in warm milk with sugar and a pinch of salt. Then, a custard was made with egg yolks and the warmed milk, it was strained, and cream was added. The custard was churned after being chilled.

The ancho chile powder in the brownies accented the chocolate in the same way espresso would. There was clearly something more than chocolate happening, but the chile flavor was just a supporting role and not obvious at all. The texture of these brownies was delightfully lighter than I expected and definitely not dense. The crackly top gave way to an almost cakey but near-fudgy interior. They were somehow the best of both worlds, and the pine nuts were a nice addition too. While I don’t think cinnamon ice cream would be a bad choice to set atop any brownie, I was especially happy with it on top of these. I’m also convinced this dessert was a good distraction from our freakishly cold weather at least for a little while. And just for the record, it's 75 degrees (F) today, and that's my favorite kind of January weather.

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comments:

I used to love brownies until one day I learnt how to make one myself. That was my biggest mistake. :( After knowing what goes in there, I stop eating brownies even until today. However I would love to bake brownies for parties and gatherings. :)

Love your brownie combination and it is a great snack to have right after skiing.

Do you realize the mind games you are playing with me this morning? We are having freezing rain that will glaze the landscape in a sheet of ice that will likely trap us in the house for days. I might go insane craving this sweetness . . . good thing I have all the ingredients to make it. 8-D

It's brrrrrrr freezing cold & reading your post gives me 'hot flashes' of the good ancho types. I got some interesing chile stuff in a spice bottle from some good folk in Canada a while ago. I think I must give these a shot soon...there goes my 'Ten in 10', but you do know how to tempt Lisa!! YUM!!

20 degrees is cooold. We had that a month ago. I'm glad it's behind us.I love the combination of chocolate and chilis but never tried to make anything at home. Hmm, will have to do something about that soon. I even have an ancho chili that I bought especially for that.

Brownies and cinnamon icecream... hmmm, how delicious can it get. Love the look of your brownies! As for the weather; it's still pretty cold here and as we speak I am looking at a white blanket of snow everwhere. It hasn't been as cold here in a looooong time!

sounds mindblowing. I'm totally addicted to brownies, pine nuts and ice-cream. And a fresh ice-cream maker owner as well. And I'd never even thought of a possibility for a cinnamon ice-cream. So this post was all about wow-moments for me. As for the temperature. It was -27 C here on Sunday. Yeah... we got all confused as well :d. That's -16.6F according to the Google converter. And I was serving home made peanut-butter toffee ice-cream :D

Your brownie recipe is convincing me that I need to hunt down and get some of that ancho powder asap! I love chocolate and chili, my favorite bar is Lindt Chocolate Chili and I would love to reproduce the flavor in a brownie. Plus I brought some delicious pine nuts back with me from Lebanon.